Press Trust of India
Melbourne, Jan 29: In a perfect climax to their stupendous run, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were crowned the Australian Open women’s doubles champions after taming the spirited Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets, here Friday.
The top seeds fought past seventh seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-6(7-1), 6-3 in the final which lasted 105 minutes.
It was the third consecutive Grand Slam title for Sania and Martina after having won the Wimbledon and US Open in the 2015 season. Their unbeaten streak has now reached 36 matches.
It was Sania’s second title at the Australian Open, having won the mixed doubles here in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupathi.
However, later in the day, Sania bowed out of the mixed doubles semifinals with Croatian partner Ivan Dodig. The top seeds lost 5-7, 6-7(4-7) to fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares – both of whom were Sania’s former partners. The Indian looked tired and jaded and it seemed that the women’s doubles final had drained her, both physically and mentally.
The women’s doubles final at the Rod Laver Arena though was not a stroll in the park for the World No.1 team with the Czechs putting up a great fight in the opening set. The match was littered with breaks both pairs struggling to hold serve throughout.
“I would like to thank everyone for coming out and supporting us. For me Australian Open is special, it’s like home. I have special memories here. We had an incredible one year. Martina is an amazing champion and an amazing person, so it is a privilege for me to play with her,” Sania said after the match in a courtside interview.
“We know how good you are (Czech team). We lost to you at Roland Garros. Hopefully we will have more finals to fight for,” Sania added.
In the opening set, the two pairs could manage to hold serve only twice each as it was full of breaks. The Czechs were serving for the set at 5-4 after breaking Sania’s serve. But Sania and Martina came out all guns blazing and the Czech duo was broken. After the set went to the tie-breaker the Indo-Swiss combo dominated to win it 7-1.
In the second set, the top seeds broke Hradecka in the very first game of the second set and never looked back after that. Though Martina was broken in the sixth game but the favourites broke back for a 5-2 lead. Again in the eighth game, with Martina serving for the match, she was broken. But then Sania played some blistering tennis in the ninth game to break the opposition and close out the match.
